happy vd...

...and smiling me, when I walk around and see things blooming in my yard. I've noticed the daffodils starting to open up: how can you look at those happy little yellow blooms and not smile? And lots of other bulb plants that have been mostly acquired from my employer over the years. When the pots of 'forced' bulbs bloom out, start to fade, are no longer fresh enough to be sale-able, they usually go in the commercial dumpster behind the store. But it pains me to throw the bulb plants away, so I divert as many as I feel like I can without being questioned or fired.

So I have brought hundreds home over the years, either planting out under the trees, or hauling away to points north (Decatur or TN) to share. The ones that made it no farther than Midland are starting to show some color. I'm not sure if it their genetics are operating on light or warmth or both, but they are really starting to come up. Some narcissus/paper whites, a few of the Chinese tallow lilies that look very similar to narcissus in their growth pattern with lots of little blooms on one stalk, but each individual bloom looks more like a tiny version of daffodil. Lots and lots of hyacinths, popping up north of the house, in a bed just outside the big window where I sit to eat and type: glorious! Pinks and white and lavender. Today is Feb. 14, the birthday of my grandmother Rosa. Seeing hyacinths blooming always makes me think of her.

Some of the daffodils out in the leaf mulch are blooming - so you can look down the hill in the back of the house, and see little bright yellow spots of color, dancing in the breeze. Plus a few of the ones I must have ordered from those little farm wives up in north GA years ago, that have unique growth habits: lots of petals around the 'saucer' part. I think these are called 'butter and eggs', as the center has so many petals there were the cup should be, it looks like scrambled eggs. Lots of jonquils, the tiny little mini-version of the daffodil that is about the size of your thumbnail. Coming up in clumps, where I dug in a handful of bulbs in one spot, blooming almost as soon as their heads get above ground level.

Yay, spring!